Multi-component hip orthosis

ABSTRACT

Our design provides a moderate control of abduction and adduction without requiring tools. This can be accomplished with a first push button  5 , shown in FIG.  1 , for a hip adjustment of both abduction and adduction between a hip shell  2  and a hip hinge assembly that provides release of locking pins for setting the flexion and extension movement of the user&#39;s leg. A second push button  6  provides abduction and adduction between the hip hinge assembly  1  and a thigh supporting unit. 
     To facilitate an initial vertical adjustment, we provide a flexible plastic spacer  7  with circular openings extending through the spacer between the leg adjuster and the upper thigh support pad. The flexible plastic spacer  7  enables an initial adhesion between the hook and nap material through openings in the flexible plastic spacer  7.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit and priority of U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 62/692,308, entitled “MULTI-COMPONENT HIP ORTHOSIS,”filed on Jun. 29, 2018, the entire disclosure of which is herebyincorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

A conventional hip orthosis frequently required tools to adjust a fit ofthe components to the patient.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Our hip orthosis is designed to be easily positioned and to enableadjustment and affixing of hip shells, while providing a lighter weightthan a conventional hip orthosis, with a relatively low profile.

Our hip orthosis utilizes a flexible waist band 12 for adjustablyconforming to the waist of a user having a first and second waistsegments with a force multiplying connector cord 11 for adjusting adisplacement distance between the respective ends of the first andsecond waist segments, thereby enabling a lateral force to be applied tothe user. The hip shell 2 of our hip orthosis is removably attached tothe flexible waistband by a pair of flexible straps 13 with one of ahook and nap material for attaching to a surface of a flexible waistband12 having a complimentary surface to enable an adhering of the hip shell2 to the flexible waistband. Our first and second waist segments enablea tightening about the waist of the user to provide a lateral force tobe applied to the user.

Our design provides a moderate control of abduction and adductionwithout requiring tools. This can be accomplished with a first pushbutton 5, shown in FIG. 1, for a hip adjustment of both abduction andadduction between a hip shell 2 and a hip hinge assembly 4 that providesrelease of locking pins for setting the flexion and extension movementof the user's leg by rotation of disks 2 with serrated edges in FIG. 7.We further provide a second push button 6 for hip adjustment ofabduction and adduction between the hip hinge assembly 1 and a thighsupporting unit 1 which is attached to a leg adjuster bar, extendingdownward from the hip hinge assembly in FIG. 7. The use of push buttonsremoves the requirements of tools.

A waist support unit 12 includes a waist shell 2, shown in FIGS. 1 and2, and a pair of flexible straps 13 support pad attached by one of ahook and nap material to a waist-band 12 encircling the waist of thepatient, having a complimentary nap or hook material for adhering to thewaist support unit 12 and a lower thigh support pad 14 configured toconfirm to the user's thigh with a central space permitting verticalmovement of the leg adjuster.

To facilitate an initial vertical adjustment, we provide a flexibleplastic spacer 7 with circular openings extending through the spacerbetween the leg adjuster and a upper thigh support pad 14. We utilizeone of a hook or nap material attached to the leg adjuster and the otherof the hook or nap material is attached to the thigh support unit 1. Theflexible plastic spacer 7 enables an initial adhesion between the hookand nap material through the openings in the flexible plastic spacer 7,as shown in FIG. 10.

This particular configuration of a flexible plastic spacer 7 enablesfurther vertical movement by the plastic spacer to release the initialadhesion of the hook and nap material until the proper vertical positionis reached. After a final adjustment to the proper vertical position,the flexible plastic spacer 7 can be removed to enable a firm attachmentby a larger surface adhesion of hook and nap material to maintain thedesired configuration of the hip orthosis without the requirement oftools, while providing moderate control of abduction and adduction andalso control of flexion and extension by reducing any protrusion of ahip hinge that has occurred in hip orthoses in the past. We enable apivot placement 5 above and 6 below the hinge, and the components thatcollectively form the hip orthosis, can be easily cleaned, both by thepractitioner and ultimately during use by the patient. Reference can bemade to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 of our Drawings.

Additionally, our hip orthosis 2 can incorporate a cold therapy bladder15 that can receive a flow of cold water to enable the application ofcold therapy to the user while wearing the hip orthosis. Reference canbe made to the Drawing of FIG. 8. A cold therapy pad 15 can utilize ametal frame that is relatively thin and pliable, such as aluminum, tothereby enable bending to accommodate, not only hoses for receiving andreturning the cold fluid and an outer layer of foam is covered with ahook compatible cover, while a bottom layer, that will be positionedadjacent to the skin of the user, will also have foam with an outersurface covered with a terry type cloth.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features, aspects, and advantages of the embodiments will becomebetter understood regarding the following description, appended claimsand accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a side view of the hip orthosis on a patient.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the hip orthosis on a patient.

FIG. 3 is a side view of the hip shell 2 and a tightening cord 11 thatcan flex the hip shell 2 to conform to the patient's anatomy.

FIG. 4 is a side view of the hip orthosis wherein abduction andadduction adjustment can be made on the patient by squeezing a buttonand without the use of tools.

FIG. 5 is a side view of a hip shell 2 that can be attached to the waistband by hook and nap material and a lower thigh support shell 1configured to conform to the user's thigh with a central space forpermitting vertical movement of a leg adjuster.

FIG. 6 is an exploded view of the components of our hip orthosis.

FIG. 7 is a view of the outside of the thigh shell 1 and an explodedview of the component parts, including rotatable control plates 2 thatprovide hip adjustment of abduction and adduction. A screw 19 can lock atrapezoidal button 4 to prevent any movement of the rotatable controlplates by the patient.

FIG. 8 discloses an application of cold therapy that can be provided onour hip orthosis. A cold therapy pad assembly, for example, of aluminumcan be bent to conform to a treatment site of a patient with a terrycloth positioned to contact the user to moderate the application of acold temperature of water delivered by a hose connected to a remotepump, connected to the source of cold water.

FIG. 9 provides a donning sequence of the hip orthosis to a patient witha flexible plastic spacer 7 with circular openings that can enablevertical movement by releasing any attachment of nap and hook materialthrough the circular openings for adjusting a vertical position of thehip orthosis.

FIG. 10 shows an assembled thigh support pad and an exploded view of thecomponents, including the flexible plastic spacer 7 with holes.

The cold therapy bladder 15 is positioned in FIG. 8 partly under the hipshell 2 and connected by a second hose extending from a cooler 16 toprovide cold water to a side of the user's hip.

Thus, a cold therapy bladder, for example of aluminum, can be bent toconform to the surface of a patient that is to receive the cold therapytreatment. The top layer of the cold therapy bladder is compatible withthe hooks of a VELCRO configuration for securing a position of a coldtherapy bladder adjacent a treatment site for the patient. The bottomlayer of foam is covered with a terry cloth designed to contact the userand to moderate the delivery of the cold treatment therapy to the user'sbody.

As can be seen in our Drawing, FIGS. 1-7, the hip shell 2 has a seriesof open slots that facilitates conforming the hip shell 2 to thepatient's autonomy with a tightening cord 11, shown in FIG. 3, that iscapable of flexing the upper hip shell when tightened. Also seen onFIGS. 1 and 3 of our Drawings, we have push buttons 5 and 6 forproviding both abduction and adduction adjustments.

Referring to Drawings 1, 2, 7, and 9, the manner of fastening the hiporthosis about the waist of a patient to the flexible waistband 12 isshown, along with positioning of the thigh component. The distal armthat can slide within a slot extending vertically on the thigh paddlepermits an adjustment of the thigh shell height along the lower distalarm. Subsequently, removal of a flexible plastic spacer 7, when adesired positioning of a thigh shell height has been accomplished,permits a more permanent adhesion between the leg adjuster and the thighshell.

As can be appreciated, exploded views of our hip orthosis and individualcomponents can be found in FIGS. 6 and 7 of our Drawings and theassembled configurations of our hip orthosis can be seen in FIGS. 1, 2,5, and 6, that provides different relative points of view of our hiporthosis components. An exploded view of the components forming our hiporthosis can be seen in FIG. 6, with assembled views of the hip orthosisbeing seen in FIGS. 1, 2, 5, and 6.

Reference can be made to an adjustment comparison of the hip assemblylength in FIG. 6 to appreciate the advantage of utilizing a removableflexible plastic spacer 7 with openings to permit the practitioner torelatively adjust the thigh support unit until a desired position isreached and then permanently adhered by pressing complimentary napmaterial and hook material together to permit a permanent position ofthe lower thigh support pad on the leg adjuster.

Referring to FIGS. 1, 2 and 9, a side view of the hip hinge assemblyenables a relative rotation upon pushing the trapezoidal button 4 on thehip hinge assembly to permit a relative rotation for setting the flexionand extension movement for the user's leg. As can be appreciated, toolsand fastening components that would have to be released or removed arenot required to facilitate our adjustment. The configuration of a pairof control plates 2 that can be relatively rotated, when a push button 4is activated for hip adjustment of abduction and adduction as can beseen in FIGS. 1 and 7. The leg adjustment structure can be seen in theDonning Sequence of FIG. 9, with an exploded view of the hip hingeassembly shown in FIGS. 5, 6 and 10.

FIG. 7 includes a screw 19 that can be used to lock the push button 4 toprevent any movement of the rotatable control plates so that the patientcan not alter the settings recommended by the medical professional.

Finally, our Claims are provided on Pages 5 and 6.

1. A hip orthosis comprising: a flexible waistband for adjustablyconforming to a waist of a user including first and second waistsegments and a force multiplying connector for adjusting a displacementdistance between respective ends of the first and second waist segmentsto provide a tightening of the first and second waist segments about thewaist of the user to enable a lateral force to be applied to the user; ahip shell is removably attached to the flexible waistband by flexiblestraps with one of a hook and nap material for attaching to a surface ofthe flexible waistband with a complimentary surface to enable anadhering of the hip shell to the flexible waistband; a first push buttonfor hip adjustment of abduction and adduction between the hip shell anda hip hinge assembly having a push button release of locking pins forsetting flexion and extension movement of the user's leg; a second pushbutton for hip adjustment of abduction and adduction between the hiphinge assembly and a thigh support unit which is attached to a legadjuster extending downward from the hip hinge assembly; and the thighsupport unit includes an upper thigh support pad attached by one of ahook and nap material to a pad having a complimentary nap material orhook for adhering to the upper thigh support pad and a lower thighsupport pad configured to conform to the user's thigh with a centralspace for permitting vertical movement of the leg adjustor.
 2. The hiporthosis of claim 1 further including a flexible plastic spacer 7,extending below the thigh support shell with a circular openings toextend between a leg adjuster and the upper thigh support pad, whereinone of a hook or nap material is attached to the leg adjuster and theother of the hook or nap material is attached to the thigh support unit,the flexible plastic spacer enables an initial adhesion between the hookand nap material through the openings, while enabling a further verticalmovement until the proper vertical position is reached and the flexibleplastic spacer can be removed to provide a firm attachment over a largersurface adhesion of hook and nap material.
 3. The hip orthosis of claim1 further comprising a cold therapy that can receive a flow of coldwater, is attached to the hip orthosis for enabling an application ofcold therapy to the user.
 4. The hip orthosis of claim 3 furthercomprising, the cold therapy bladder is formed of a thin and pliablemetal frame that can be bent to conform to the user's body that is toreceive the cold therapy.
 5. The hip orthosis of claim 4, wherein thethin and pliable metal frame has top and bottom layers of foam attachedto the metal frame.
 6. The hip orthosis of claim 5, wherein the toplayer of foam is covered with an outer layer that is compatible withadhering to hooks for securing a position of the cold therapy bladder.7. The hip orthosis of claim 5, wherein the bottom layer of foam iscovered with a terrycloth to contact the user.